Robert Bell (physician)

For other people named Robert Bell, see Robert Bell (disambiguation).
Robert Bell
FRFPS
A vintage photograph of an elderly man with white hair and a moustache, wearing a dark suit with a white shirt, a bow tie, and a flower on his lapel, standing and looking slightly to the side.
Portrait of Bell from his obituary in The Vegetarian Messenger and Health Review
Born
Robert Bell

(1845-01-06)6 January 1845
Alnwick, England
Died20 January 1926(1926-01-20) (aged 81)
London, England
Alma materUniversity of Glasgow
Occupation(s)Physician, medical writer
Years active1868–1924
Medical career
Institutions
Sub-specialtiesGynaecology, oncology

Robert Bell FRFPS (6 January 1845 – 21 January 1926) was an English physician and medical writer. He specialised in gynaecology and oncology and was vice-president of the International Cancer Research Society. He was also a naturopath and published several books on cancer and other diseases. Bell was an advocate for alternative cancer treatments, including raw foodism and vegetarianism. His promotion of such treatments led to the oncologist Ernest Francis Bashford accusing him of quackery in the British Medical Journal; Bell successfully sued Bashford and the journal for libel.

Life and career

Portrait of Bell from his autobiography (1924)

Bell was born in Alnwick, on 6 January 1845.[1] He studied at the University of Glasgow and in Paris.[2] Bell started practicing medicine in Glasgow in 1868.[2] He worked for 21 years at the Glasgow Samaritan Hospital for Women as a senior physician.[3]

Bell moved to London in 1904.[4] In 1909, he declined an offer of a baronetcy.[3] He was a council member of the Order of the Golden Age,[5] and the vice president of the International Cancer Research Society.[2] Bell advocated fasting and a diet of uncooked vegetables and fruit, along with eggs and dairy as an optimal diet for maintaining health.[3]

Bell later led cancer research at Battersea Anti-Vivisection Hospital and worked to publicise his view that surgical treatment for cancer was unnecessary and that cancer was preventable by dietetic and hygienic measures.[4][6] Bell recommended his cancer patients fresh air and a vegetarian diet of uncooked vegetables, nuts and dairy products.[7] An article by the noted oncologist Ernest Francis Bashford published by the British Medical Journal, in 1911, accused Bell of quackery for his alternative cancer treatments; he successfully sued the author and journal for libel and was awarded £2,000 (equivalent to £250,116 in 2023) damages plus costs.[4][8]

In 1923, Bell was charged with an allegation of breaching medical etiquette. The charge was that he had prescribed treatment for and attended to a woman with cancer without having seen her in person. However, he was cleared of these charges.[9]

Bell published his autobiography in 1924, Reminiscences of an Old Physician.[10] He died in London on 20 January 1926, at the age of 81;[1] his funeral was held at Golders Green Crematorium.[9]

Personal life

Bell was married three times. His first marriage was to Christina Catherine Alexander in 1869 in Govan, Scotland,[11] and they had four children together, Robert, Annie, Margaret and Alistair,[12] before she died in 1891. In 1893, he married Mary Allan Dobie in Keir, Scotland,[13] who died in 1899.[14] His third marriage was to Clara Ellen Ross (née Sims) at St Mary Abbotts in Kensington, in 1900.[15]

Selected publications

References

  1. ^ a b "Bell, Robert, (6 Jan. 1845–20 Jan. 1926), FRFPS, etc; Consulting Physician; Vice-President of International Cancer Research Society; Superintendent of Cancer Research, Battersea Hospital". WHO'S WHO & WHO WAS WHO. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u193389. Retrieved 6 January 2024.
  2. ^ a b c "Dr. R. Bell Dead". Queensland Times. 23 January 1926. p. 8. Retrieved 16 September 2022.
  3. ^ a b c "Dr. Robert Bell, M.D. (1846-1926)". The Vegetarian Messenger and Health Review. February 1926.
  4. ^ a b c Brown, P S (January 1991). "Medically qualified naturopaths and the General Medical Council". Medical History. 35 (1): 50–77. doi:10.1017/s0025727300053126. ISSN 0025-7273. PMC 1036269. PMID 2008122.
  5. ^ Kuhn, Philip (2017). Psychoanalysis in Britain, 1893–1913: Histories and Historiography. Lexington Books. p. 74. ISBN 978-1-4985-0523-9.
  6. ^ Granshaw, Lindsay; Porter, Roy. (1989). The Hospital in History. Routledge. p. 228. ISBN 9780415003759
  7. ^ "Medico-Legal: BELL v. BASHFORD AND THE BRITISH MIEDICAL ASSOCIATION". The British Medical Journal. 1 (2685): 1403–1407. 15 June 1912. doi:10.1136/bmj.1.2685.1403. JSTOR 25297611. S2CID 220002623.
  8. ^ Austoker, Joan. (1988). A History of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund, 1902-1986. Oxford University Press. p. 66. ISBN 9780197230756
  9. ^ a b "Fresh Food Pioneer". North Mail, Newcastle Daily Chronicle. 22 January 1926. pp. 1 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ^ Bell, Robert (1924). Reminiscences of an Old Physician. London: J. Murray. pp. 2–3.
  11. ^ "Scotland Marriages, 1561-1910", database, FamilySearch https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XTBK-745: 11 February 2020), Robert Bell, 1869.
  12. ^ Scotland. 1891 Scotland Census. Reels 1-409. General Register Office for Scotland, Edinburgh, Scotland.
  13. ^ "Births, Marriages and Deaths". The Lancet: 1547. 24 June 1893 – via Internet Archive.
  14. ^ Scotland Statutory Register of Deaths. Ref: 849 / 1. RD Name: TINWALD.
  15. ^ Bell, Robert (1924). Reminiscences of an Old Physician. London: John Murray. p. 178.